The manuscript letter includes some interlineations, apparently in the hand of Jeremy Belknap. In printing the account in Collections of the Massachusetts Historical Society, 1st series, vol. 5 (1798), Belknap assigned to it the date of 1 January 1798. At the end of the document, Revere signed his name but then, apparently choosing to remain anonymous, wrote …show more content…
He writes of avoiding British soldiers and reaching Lexington, where he conveyed information to Hancock and Adams and where he met up with William Dawes. After Revere and Dawes set off for Concord, they were joined by Samuel Prescott, who helped them "allarm all the Inhabitents." Revere's ride ended when he was captured by British soldiers, interrogated, and eventually released in Lexington in time to hear the opening shots of the Revolutionary War.
It is interesting to compare this letter to the deposition Paul Revere wrote probably in response to a request from the Massachusetts Provincial Congress (see Paul Revere's deposition, fair copy, circa 1775; and Paul Revere's deposition, draft, circa 1775). Though fuller in some details and less detailed in others, the substance of the letter does not differ materially from Revere's account of his ride to Lexington in the earlier